Prior to the Treaty of 1846 between the United States and England fixing the present northern boundary line of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains, what was known as the "Oregon Country" was bounded on the south by north latitude forty-two degrees, the present northern boundary of the states of California and Nevada; on the north by latitude fifty-four degrees and forty minutes, the present southern boundary of Alaska; on the east by the Rocky Mountains; and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. It included all of the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and parts of the states of Montana and Wyoming, and all of the present Dominion of Canada between latitudes forty-nine degrees and fifty-four degrees forty minutes, and west of the Rocky Mountains. Its area was approximately four hundred thousand square miles, an area about twenty-five per cent. greater than that of the original thirteen colonies at the time of the American Revolution. _Early Settlements and Joint-occupancy of the Oregon Country._ The first permanent settlement on the Columbia River was made by the Pacific Fur Company, which was organized and controlled by John Jacob Astor. It founded Astoria March 22, 1811. October 16, 1813, during the war of 1812, the establishments of the Pacific Fur Company in the Oregon Country, and all its furs and supplies, were sold, at less than one-third of their value, to the Northwest Company, of Montreal, by the treachery of Duncan McDougal, a partner of Astor in the Pacific Fur Company. December 1, 1813, the British sloop-of-war Raccoon arrived at Astoria and took formal possession of it in the name of the King of Great Britain. The captain of the Raccoon changed the name of Astoria to that of Fort George. Its name is now Astoria. The Northwest Company continued to carry on its business at Fort George and at other points in the Oregon Country until its coalition with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821.